Starship Wembley
by Green273
Summary: When the Doctor decides to take Clara to see the magnificent Starship Wembley in it's prime, he is shocked when he finds it missing in action. Slowly, reports filter through of other Starships vanishing. Reunited with an old friend, the Doctor and Clara must find out who's playing with fixed points in time.
1. Prologue

**The following is a transcript from Starship Wembley.**

The black box begins recording at 1600 hours on Tuesday 5th April 2154.

Man 1: We have incoming on the port side! And the starboard! My god, they're everywhere. Pike, give me the status of the engines.

Pike: [pause] Three engines down, three still firing sir, but we ain't going anywhere. Engines two and four are down, but they've overheated and are leaking radiation into the time jump. We try to move and we tear a hole in the cosmos.

[Reply inaudible]

Pike: Negative sir, all airlock shields are at full capacity. [4 second pause.] No, wait the power is being drained sir, and quickly. We're at forty percent sir and dropping.

Man 1: Damn. Hang on, they've stopped attacking. We're clear on both sides, Pike. Divert all available power to the airlock shields. Nothing get on this shi-

[Cross talk]

Pike: -Too late sir.

[Explosion and recording stops for fifteen minutes and thirty two seconds.]

Man 1: Bar the damn door Pike! [Inaudible reply from Pike] I don't care who's out there, do it!

Pike: We can't just leave them sir!

[Sound of laser gun being fired up]

Man 1: Then get out there and join them.

[Reply inaudible]

[Two laser shots fired, thud.]

Man 1: God have mercy on my soul.

[Recording stops for two minutes eight seconds.]

[Explosion, Man 1 whimpers]

Man 1: See you in hell!

[Laser shots for two minutes sixteen seconds then silence for eight seconds]

Unknown Life form: EXTERMINATE!

[Harsh laser sound, silence for eight seconds]

[Recording stops at 1633 hours on Tuesday 5th April 2154.


	2. One Direction and Taggart

Chapter One

**Friday 6****th**** April 2288**

The Doctor and Clara shuffled forward in the queue. They had been waiting over an hour in an overheated lobby filled with all sorts of different species, with one thing in common. They were here, on this particular Museum Asteroid to see the Starship Wembley in all its dilapidated glory. However, no-one had been allowed in since yesterday morning. There appeared to be some sort of hold up.

"Can't we just use the Tardis and break in, like last time?" asked Clara.

"No, not this time," replied the Doctor, visibly shuddering. "I'm still having nightmares about last time! Robot guard dogs, with a taste for Time Lord flesh… Never going back there."

He finished reminiscing then turned back to Clara.

"You have a point though. What's the hold up?" Clara shrugged. He smile knowingly, took her hand and led her through the throng of aliens to the front desk. Behind the desk sat a humanoid figure, perfectly human-looking in every way but for the three extra eyes set in her rather large forehead. Before the Doctor could ask she spoke.

"Sorry sir, no admission today by order of Sir Henry Windsor, Fourteenth Duke of Norfolk and owner of this wonderful collection." She said it in a monotone and Clara noticed she was reading the passage off a script in front of her. The Doctor cleared his throat and the alien look up; apparently surprised he was still there. He flashed her a smile before flicking open his psychic paper.

"Hi, I'm from, um, Interpol, codename the Doctor and this here is my partner, umm, Taggart," he said, flashing Clara a look of apology. At the same time the alien behind the front desk stood up, herself smiling and gestured to a door set in the far wall.

"Go through there, Doctor, and tell the guard I sent you to Mr Windsor. He's expecting you." The Doctor nodded his thanks and led Clara over to the door.

Sir Henry Windsor, Fourteenth Duke of Norfolk and direct descendent of Elizabeth the second, Queen of England, sat slouched in a swivel chair that belonged in the 21st century. In fact, the entire room was furnished as such, the walls covered in posters of long since forgotten bands and TV shows. The room would've been silent but for the soft music playing from a speaker set in his desk, the soft tones of One Direction filling the air. A knock at the door made Sir Henry jump, but he regained his composure the best he could and stood up.

"Come in," he called. The door opened and in walked his personal body guard.

"Interpol to see you sir. The Doctor, and his companion, Sergeant Taggart," he said. Sir Henry nodded, frowning. From behind the guard swept the Doctor and Clara, the former with a ridiculous grin plastered on his face.

"Hello! Oh my word, what a wonderful room. Swivel chairs, teapots and jammy dodgers, oh I'm in heaven!"

"I'm glad you approve, Doctor. All antiques of course. This is the stuff not shown in the museum. What of the music though? Surely you must have an opinion on One Direction?" replied the Duke.

"Hmm, I wouldn't go there if I were you," answered the Doctor. The Duke glared at him and spoke coldly.

"This song is a classic."

"Well, each to his own I suppose." The pair stared at each other for a moment before snapping out of it.

"To the business at hand, Doctor. I'm glad you're here. Did your seniors explain anything to you?" questioned Sir Henry.

"No," replied the Doctor. "We were in a hurry to get here. What's happened?"

"You're not going to believe me. The Starship Wembley is missing."


	3. Time Ripples

Chapter Two

The Doctor stared at the vast room which used to contain Starship Wembley, from the maintenance gallery.

"That's impossible," he said. "Play it again." He pointed to the CCTV video Sir Henry had brought up on the computer screen. The Duke hit the play button and the video, sped up so that the whole night passed in a mere minutes, showed the room that was before them. However, the video had changed from last time. The first time, the Doctor had noticed the Starship start to fade away about halfway through, before it vanished completely. This time, it began to fade a quarter of the way through, being completely gone by halfway. The Doctor frowned and played it again. This time, the video just showed a blank room. He sighed, confused. He'd scanned the room with the sonic and it had detected no energy emissions. Then, without warning, the room began to tremble and flashing ripples of purple energy shot across it. The Doctor's eyes widened in enlightenment.

"Of course," he breathed. "Time ripples. Something happened, in the past, to the Starship Wembley meaning that it is not here. But why are they still happening?" He tailed off as his eyes found Sir Henry. The Duke of Norfolk had a vacant look on his face, but more worryingly was the growing translucent nature of his being. In an instant, the Doctor threw his sonic to Clara and issued instructions

"Psychic interface, point and press, keep it on him and visualise him when you first saw him." He turned and ran from the room leaving a petrified Clara holding her finger down on the screwdrivers button and concentrating with all her might on the man before her.

The Doctor reached the Tardis easily, due to the sudden lack of customers. In fact the asteroid museum was slowly becoming less museum more abandoned building. He snapped his fingers; the doors to his ship flew open and he ran inside with breaking stride. He shot past the console rounded the corner into the corridor and threw open the door to what looked like a bric-a-brac shop. He ran to a desk, yanked open a draw and started rummaging through it furiously, all the while muttering "Where is it?" to himself. Eventually he found what he was looking for, thrust it into his pocket and sprinted out of the Tardis.

Back in the viewing gallery and things weren't going too well for Clara. The bodyguard that had accompanied them had vanished, along with all the technology in the room. It now looked dilapidated and disused. Just as her hand began to hurt, pressed down on the sonic, she heard footsteps and the Doctor burst into the room. He ran to Sir Henry, and unceremoniously yanked a handful of hair from his head, causing the Duke to yell out in pain.

"Sorry, but I need a DNA marker," said the Doctor, pulling the object he'd gotten from the Tardis out of his pocket. It looked to Clara like a stainless steel ring, though several inches thicker and with flashing lights along it. The Doctor slid open a delicate looking hatch and fed in one of Sir Henry's hairs. Instantly, the lights turned green and with a shout of jubilation he slid the ring on to Sir Henry's hand. There was a pause, where nothing happened, and then Clara's thumb slipped off the Sonic. However, instead of disappearing completely, Sir Henry solidified, back to normal.

"Phew," sighed the Doctor. "I could murder a jelly baby."


	4. All Aboard

Chapter Three

"It's a chronon blocker," explained the Doctor. "In layman's terms it is the only thing stopping you from fading away. I couldn't use a Kontron crystal, I don't have one, and so the Tardis is sustaining the paradox." The blank looks from Clara and the Duke made him sigh.

"If something happens in a persons past, if time gets re-written to the extent that they would no longer exist, they fade away. Usually it's in an instant, and you can't stop it. In this case however, something monumental must have happened because we physically saw the time ripples," he added.

"So, I shouldn't be here then?" asked Sir Henry.

"No. The Tardis is sustaining you, but she can only do that for so long. Luckily you are an anomaly and she can use this to track back to the point in time where your timeline changed," replied the Doctor. With that, he seized Clara's hand, and led them both to the Tardis.

The Duke of Norfolk felt woozy. The air inside the Tardis was filled with it's familiar vrooming noise, and the Doctor was dashing about, flicking switches and turning knobs in a rather random fashion.

"It's bigger on the inside," he murmured, swaying slightly where he stood.

"Yeah. You get used to that," answered Clara.

"No you don't!" said the Doctor. "Even I'm not used to it yet. No, sorry that's a lie. I do that a lot." He grinned at Clara who rolled her eyes.

"Right," said the Doctor. "I've traced the temporal tipping point and we are here!" As he spoke the Tardis settled.

"Friday 6th 2288."


End file.
